ISLAMABAD, September 28, 2021: The Provincial Assembly of Punjab passed three private members’ bills and as many resolutions on Tuesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its Daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during the third sitting of 35th session:

Members’ Participation

• The House met for two hours and 16 minutes.
• The sitting started at 03:52 pm against the scheduled time of 02:00 pm.
• The speaker presided over the sitting for 52 minutes while the remaining sitting was chaired by a member of panel of chairpersons.
• The deputy speaker was not present.
• The leaders of the House (Chief Minister) and the opposition did not attend the sitting.
• As many as 57 MPAs (15 percent) were present at the outset and 25 (seven percent) at the adjournment of the sitting.
• The parliamentary leader of PRHP attended the proceedings.
• Two out of eight minority lawmakers attended the sitting.

Output

• The House passed three private members’ bills which included the University of South Asia, Lahore (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Institute of Management and Applied Sciences Khanewal Bill, 2021 and the Aspire University Lahore Bill, 2021.
• The House adopted a resolution paying rich tributes to veteran Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Geelani for his relentless struggle for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
• Two other resolutions were also adopted by the House which demanded the government to ensure display of Quranic verses and Hadith regarding Finality of Prophethood in the government offices and take welfare steps for transgender persons.
• Four resolutions on the agenda were withdrawn by their movers and three were rejected by the House.
• Two resolutions were not taken up due to mover’s absence while one was deferred on the request of relevant minister.

Representation and Responsiveness 

• The House took up two out of 31 starred questions. In addition, the lawmakers asked six supplementary questions.
• The relevant minister responded to zero hour notice regarding payment of less wages to workers in a cement factory of Khushab. Eight other notices were not taken up due to ministerial absence.
• Two privilege motions of as many PTI lawmakers were deferred due to absence of relevant ministers. These motions were regarding misconduct of doctors of tehsil headquarters hospital, Khushab and headmistress of a government higher secondary schools with them.

Order and Institutionalization

• Five lawmakers spoke on point of orders for seven minutes.
• The House was adjourned to meet again on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 at 02:00 pm.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available on Assembly’s website.
• Information on Members’ attendance is available on Assembly’s website.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Punjab Assembly proceedings conducted by SANGAT Development Foundation, a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted